News
Calls for psilocybin access rights for UK cluster headache sufferers
Backed by three top psychiatrists, 161 cluster headache sufferers in the UK have written an open letter to Home Office ministers Savid Javid and Kit Malthouse calling for politicians to reschedule psilocybin.
The Case for Rescheduling Psilocybin x CDPRG
In September 2020, the APPG for Drug Policy Reform heard expert commentary from the front lines of the UK's battle against the mental health crisis, which made clear that Britain has got to unlock the therapeutic potential of psilocybin.
Are Psychedelics the Future of Pain Relief?
For more than 15 years, Ainslie Course suffered from one of the most intense pains known to humans: cluster headaches. Sometimes nicknamed "suicide headaches", her main symptom was an excruciating pain that suddenly surrounded one eye in debilitating bouts of attacks.
Small Doses of Psychedelics for Cluster Headaches
One understudied condition for which small doses of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin may be beneficial is cluster headache. As founder and executive director of the advocacy group Clusterbusters, I have seen firsthand, as a patient and an activist, that,...
International Cluster Headache Questionnaire Results
Cluster headache epidemiology including pediatric onset, sex, and ICHD criteria: Results from the International Cluster Headache Questionnaire Abstract Objective To validate the diagnoses and to investigate epidemiological data from an international, non-clinic-based,...
The Barking Cat: Being a Father with Cluster Headaches
My 13-month-old daughter is “arfing” at the barking cat toy her aunt Alyssa gave her. She just learned how to say “meow,” and now her favorite toy is defying the laws of nature, which may scar her for life. It’s my first major parental challenge.
CMS Makes Oxygen Therapy a Covered Benefit for Cluster Headaches for “Select” Patients
After two decades of advocacy to get the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide home oxygen coverage for cluster headaches, Clusterbusters is ecstatic to share they will soon cover this first-line treatment. We’re thrilled to celebrate this huge...
Is “Experimental” Just Another Way For Your Insurer to Deny Coverage? Medical Experts Wonder, Too.
In the first two decades that Bob Wold had cluster headaches, he tried more than 70 prescription medications in an effort to find relief from recurring bouts of excruciating pain. “It feels,” he said, “like a hot poker being stuck into your temple and putting pressure...
Could Psilocybin be the Next Migraine and Cluster Headaches Treatment?
Migraine and cluster headache (CH) are both ongoing conditions that severely impact a patient’s quality of life and are significant causes of disability.
Although treatments are available for both conditions, medications have been known to be ineffective and cause unpleasant side-effects in a significant number of patients.
Evidence has shown that psilocybin – the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms – alongside other drugs which interact with the 5-HT2A receptor, like LSD, have long-lasting effects reducing migraine and CH frequency in patients.
Demoralization predicts suicidality in patients with cluster headache
The particular characteristics of cluster headache (CH) impart a marked burden on its patients. CH is the most common trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia, characterized by recurrent disabling attacks of unilateral retroorbital pain accompanied by ipsilateral autonomic symptoms such as lacrimation, ptosis, nasal congestion and/ or facial sweating. Headache attacks recur over periods of weeks to months separated by attack-free remission periods lasting months to years; this episodic form of CH comprises approximately 80% of cases.
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